Turian Hierarchy
One of the major nations in the galaxy, with a seat on the Citadel Council. Turian society is highly regimented and very organized, and the species is known for its strict discipline and work ethic. Most of all, turians are known for their military, particularly their contribution of soldiers and starships to the Citadel Fleet. Client Races Several, most notably the volus. In return for falling under the protective umbrella of the turian military, the volus pay a tax to the Hierarchy, as well as deferring to the turians in all foreign policy matters, and providing auxiliary troops to the turian armed forces. They still maintain an embassy on the Citadel, making them an associate species of the Council, though they currently share their embassy with the elcor. People Most conventional turians parent their children in a similar manner to how they’re supervised by the Hierarchy. From a young age, turians are taught ‘rules of fair play’, teamwork, and a healthy amount of deference to authority figures like teachers, military police, and Primarchs. Children are encouraged to perform to the best of their abilities, but outright competition with their peers is discouraged. As long as these core precepts are met, turian parents tend to be watchful but laissez-faire in the affairs of their children, trusting that if a child does begin to get on the wrong track, either they or someone else in the community will notice. Mainstream turian culture typically depicts raising a child as one of the highest and most beautiful expressions of loyalty to the Hierarchy - they enrich the population, and, when properly raised, can contribute an immeasurable amount of good to society. The ideal love of a turian parent isn’t based on blood or a strong sense of personal pride in a child’s accomplishments. Instead, it is based on the satisfaction of molding a child into a model, self-sacrificing instrument of the Hierarchy. It’s a slightly more personal version of the same sort of philia that any supervising turian is expected to give their subordinates. This isn’t to say that turians don’t feel more traditionally Western Terran-emphasized forms of love; they simply take a background role to the officially-sanctioned form. Turians generally attend state-run schools and academies which supply a basic foundation of mathematics, science, language, history, and physical education. However, there are also formalized, mandatory classes on ‘turian culture’, which help to strengthen teamwork and implicit trust in superiors and subordinates. This is further reinforced by classroom pedagogy in the other subjects: collaboration and group work are encouraged. Students are introduced to a watered-down version of the citizenship tier system early: they are screened for aptitude and placed in advanced, academic, or remedial sections upon entrance into school. A student’s performance is later used to personalize his or her recommended career path once they reach boot. Parents are also free to home-school or send their children to a pan-species school or private institution, but the Hierarchy sets minimum core standards that must be met before a child can progress to boot, including ‘turian culture’ classes and mandatory standardized tests so that officials can keep abreast of an individual’s progress. On induction into boot camp, turians are subdivided into cadres based on their estimated aptitude and measured performance in school. The initial year (“boot”) consists of demanding weapons training, drills, and further team-building exercises. There’s also a classroom component - as legal adults who are no longer under the supervision of their parents, boot inductees are goven adult life classes - household budgeting, cooking, and sex education. Recruits are routinely monitored throughout the initial training year in order to further evaluate what role they’d best play in the Hierarchy military. Individuals are generally presented with a list of recommended roles that their supervisors feel would suit them best upon graduating from boot - recruits aren’t under any legal obligation to select a recommended role, but strong turian cultural emphasis on self-sacrifice ensures that most will accept one of their recommended posts. At 30, turians have one of two options: remain in the military or retire from active duty and attempt to build a career. Most turians who take the latter option use their peer connections and recommendations from their officers to secure jobs in the vast Hierarchy military-industrial complex. A crack marksman, for example, might secure a job as a consultant on sniper rifles at Armax Arsenal. When a turian is promoted within a corporation, they typically send a commendation to the Hierarchy which raises the turian’s citizenship tier accordingly. Others opt for graduate school, especially those who are interested in politics, education, medicine, or research positions. Hierarchy citizens normally qualify for a substantial tier promotion once completing an advanced degree. The exact promotion usually varies slightly based on their performance in school, but most gain around 5 tiers for the successful completion of a master’s level program and 10 tiers for a doctorate. Although turian university programs in the arts and most of the social sciences excepting history are the stuff of punchlines (and in some cases they lack such programs entirely), they consistently rank at or near the top in the applied sciences, especially in engineering, military science, surgical and emergency medicine, and other “hands-on” subjects. The media in Council space also praise turian universities for the enthusiasm of the research mentors, and their commitment to developing the ‘whole person’; all students, turian or not, need to pass core classes in survival skills, turian morality, and physical education. Students of turian universities graduate fit, well-connected individuals, and with little tolerance for (or, more cynically, understanding of) the academic backroom politics common in the other species. Regardless of their exact career path, most turians remain registered in the reserves after retiring from active duty, as society generally expects most adults in this age bracket to serve in some capacity. If a turian is severely injured on the front lines during active duty, he is still typically able (and willing) to adapt to a support role in the reserves. Their experience is generally like most present-day Americans in the reserve - most undergo one weekend of training per month when not on active duty. On the relationship front, most turians begin to look for a mate in earnest once they reach the age of 30. As previously mentioned, a turian normally selects their mate from a handful of sexually-active “warm” relationships that they cultivated during their active-duty stint. The process for finding a turian’s ideal mate can take several years, with the peers, superiors, and family members of both individuals offering their own input and attempting to reach a consensus as to who the individual’s partner should be. Once a decision is reached, however, courtship follows quickly. Because mates are usually quite familiar with each other by the time they’re officially declared a couple, they normally start a family quite rapidly. Fertile heterosexual mates normally conceive their own children, while infertile and homosexual couples either create designer babies or adopt. All options are viewed positively; live births increase the Hierarchy’s population, while adoptions allow the state to offload the responsibility and cost of raising a child to private citizens. Government A Primarch’s executive building is the Signis, while a parliamentary building is known as a Radiatum. The ministry of citizenship rankings is known as the Laudatix. A Carifinum is an emergency management agency. The oserun ''is a ceremony that recognizes the promotion of turians to a new citizenship tier. Economy The Hierarchy economy can be characterized as progressive corporatism, with the vast amount of wealth controlled by the government and large, government-sponsored collectives like Armax Arsenal and Haliat Armory. Volus conglomerates like the Elkoss Combine aren’t bound by regulations as strictly as purely turian interests, but are generally subject to the same or similarly high levels of taxation. The Hierarchy uses government revenue to sustain its military and an all-encompassing welfare system, including universal health care, public education, infrastructure, and a variety of state-run orphanages, subsidized housing for homeless and low-tier citizens, and nursing homes. Official unemployment is nearly zero, owing to the size and stability of most turian corporations, and in the rare case of layoffs, most turians can easily transfer back to active duty within the military. Base salary is determined by citizenship tier, not industry; income is largely flat across a tier. Tax burden is both high and progressive. It, like base salary, is determined by the C.T. The lowest tiers pay approximately 25% of their base salary, while Primarchs and other high-tier citizens often pay in excess of 80%. Dissatisfaction with the system is relatively low as taxation is in line with the popular notion of more talent equaling more responsibility, and the government, rather than the individual, being the best arbiter of responsibility. Entrepreneurship is rare for a variety of reasons: lack of cultural interest, the necessity of hiring a large compliance team to ensure governmental regulations are satisfied, the probable necessity of hiring a team of non-turian accountants to ensure financial solvency, and the tendency for large interests to buy up turian inventors with lucrative offers of employment and citizenship tier increases in exchange for their patents and ideas. Like entrepreneurship, individual investment is almost nonexistent outside of low-risk options like savings accounts, CDs, and governmental bonds, which turians usually resort to only when saving for major purchases; regardless of social class, turians normally live paycheck-to-paycheck. See: Gladus Industries. Ships Dreadnought: ''Audacer ''(from audax, “fearless/bold/daring”). Coincidentally, the turian name for dreadnought ended up being somewhat close in meaning to the human one, but for entirely different reasons - unlike other species, turian spacefaring draws less from a maritime tradition than it does aviation, and flight in general. Hence, turian ship types tend to be based on either 1) aircraft, or 2) the names or activities of birds and other flying creatures, with some overlap between the two. Dreadnoughts are named after the ''audax, a large, majestic (now unfortunately extinct) bird of prey with a gigantic wingspan, which was popularly ascribed such noble qualities as strength, fortitude and courage. Cruiser: ''Cursor ''(from curso, literally “runner”, but in this context “strike at/collide with/fall upon”), named for the swooping action of predatory birds, much like how cruisers are traditionally supposed to attack merchantmen. ''Cursor ''is also the turian word for “divebomber”. See: Lorica-class Frigate: ''Lusorian ''(Re. lusoria, “playful/spirited/dancing”). This is one of the few with aquatic connotations, and even then it most accurately to describe the behaviour of seabirds. The ''lusorian ''is a kind of light, nimble ship similar to a yacht that was often armed in days of yore and used for patrol, anti-piracy, or cutter duties. Category:Nations Category:Turians